That morning too, the runny nose I had noticed the day before, and assumed was just a response to spicey food, was with me fierce, accompanied by an occasional sneeze and hint of a tender throat. So the second order of business in Kanchanaburi was to put my Malaria paranoia at ease and see a doctor. The hopital was quite nice, and the staff knew just enough english for me to get by. After a short, ten minute wait, we saw a young, profesional looking doctor, and a normal doctor/patient conversation took place. Other than the concern that an important piece of information would be lost in translation, and his use of a non-disposable tougne depresor to check my throat, I felt I was in good hands. Diagnosis? I just had a cold. And as Jeanie reminded me later, flu syptoms such as fever and muscel aches are different than those of a cold as I was experiencing, and it is the flu that earuy malaria looks like. I was perscribed Tylenol, an antihistamine, and something to dry up my nose, all to be expected. I declined the medicines, and the visit cost just 100BHT or 2.50USD! My cold is now gone, two days later. Thank goodness that was all it was.

We ate lunch at a nice place on the river, and took a rickety ferry across the river for 3BHT per person. We were off to visit our first Wat (Buddhist temple). The map in our guidebook was not very acurate, so it was a bit more of a trek than we had figured, but with some help from the locals, we found our way to Wat Tham Mongkon Thong. We saw monks doing chores, a buddha image covered in partially attatched gold leaf rusteling in the wind, and ascended a long flight of stairs to a cave enterace. After making a small donation to an old woman for electricity for the lights, we entered a narrow passage way. Inside was a small spirit house, as seen all over this Buddhist land, that shared the cave with a residence of bats. Further on we had to ford on hands and knees, and exited up a ladder.

On our way out we saw our first elephant. She was smallish, and chained to a post, eagerly awaiting a feeding by us of bananas, conveniently available from a vendor for 20 bhat. We fed her the bunch of finger bananas one at a time. The end of her trunk worked like a strong but gentle hand, politely taking the banana from our hand and popping it into her mouth. Such a big animal. Her skin was tough, her nose dripped a little, and you could see up her nostrils a good foot.

Staying connected in Thailand is relatively easy. Internet cafes are common and cost roughly 20 to 180 baht (USD $.50 to $4.50) an hour depending on where you look.

With our handy PDA and modem, we can compose our log entries and include pictures without being in a cafe. We purchased a LoxInfo Internet card to use while in Asia. All we need is a phone line.

Well, finding a phone plug to use just to make a local call has proven to be difficult. Pay phones do not have plugs for our use. Most places of business have phone lines that can receive incoming calls, but not outgoing. And the locals use mobile phones. So bear with us, we're trying.